randomosity

One thing that really strikes me and I’m not sure I was as conscious of it before was that English holds a strange place here. There is the unique fascination with certain words that seem totem and symbolic rather than literal. In many cases, the words chosen have no context in English (don’t make sense), its almost as if they are perceived as more resonant when written in English. You see descriptive terms on clothing for example that are solid such as skiing on a jacket. Otherwise there are of course many words that may even have originated from German roots and are now borrowed back from the English. These have formed many of the words I have chosen to contribute to Geoffrey Rockwell’s Dictionary of Words in the Wild.

Well, here I sit at the Flughaffen Frankfurt. Its about 8am, and we got in a little ahead of schedule at 6:45am. No sleep, but then I decided that that would be best in the end and forewent the schlaffendrage (sic). Feel a wee bit fatigued, but not too bad yet. The 777 is a pretty sweet ride. The entertainment system has all the choices you could want for any length of flight. Seat pitch about the same, but it was one bumpy ride most of the way. Its just lightening up in FRA and I have a rather lengthy layover. Tried to move to an earlier flight as there are Lufthansa flights for München every hour, but they tell me that with my fare, I would have to pay a hefty surcharge. Not quite sure where the airline economy is in that, but alas. We’ll just kick back for a bit and wait it out.
Frankfurt always seems (and is absolutely) removed from nationality. Everyone is on their way somewhere or in between places. Its has that transient feeling about it.
Saw the final Pirates of the Caribbean, which was amusing then watched a string of sitcoms, including a British one about paleontologists dealing with dinosaurs in modern day England and a US one called 10 items of Less which seemed quite good as well. A couple Office episodes, a Eureka and ‘Til death. All good.
English is spoken in the airport here more than German it seems, but then that seems to be the memory for here. About an hours walk to get where I am in the terminal. We shall see what we find in München.
No wireless in the terminal that I can find.

Geoffrey Reaume from York and University of Toronto gave a fascinating talk in the History of Health and Medicine Lunchtime Seminar Series today. “From Activists to Archivists: Documenting Mad People’s History Since the 1970s,” explored both the formation of psychiatric survivors organizations from the 1970s as well as the collection of artifacts allowing for study of these movements.
His talk reminded us of Allen Markman in NY, Kenneth Donaldson in Portland then more directly of local personalities such as Mel Starkman and Don Weitz. Reaume’s talk provided me with a wonderful exposure to the more human side of the mental health world and also put it into the context of other groups within society that battle with naming conventions. Very poignantly, Reaume also exposed the tremendously contentious area of attempting to remember the past when treatment has often been undertaken to eliminate such remembrances.
Reaume is currently engaged in two ongoing attempts to ensure that those that have been participants (willingly or unwillingly) in Toronto asylums past are not forgotten. The walls of the old Queen Street Asylum have been the site of local development over the past decade.
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I feared the trackpad. I am not the biggest fan of the trackpad. I gather that my namesake, the CTO at Synaptics is responsible for some of the biggest breakthroughs as the trackpad gained laptop cred during the 1990’s and so I feel a little loyalty if only by association. However, my favourite means of input is the TrackPoint - the little red nubby (that becomes less red real fast) that the IBM ThinkPad is most closely associated with. This is a very personal area. I know many users that could just not get used to using a single finger on an ultra-sensitive tiny joystick. The cursor and they could not become friends with the TrackPoint in the equation. Random survey indicates most people still carry a mouse with them and connect it - this is the case for TrackPoint as well as trackpad users. I am glancing around the coffee shop right now and frankly I am the only one relying on the built in tracking device. There’s a lot of users with big mice and small mice, but mice nonetheless. There is even a user carefully balancing one on the arm of an easy chair - that can’t possibly be comfortable.
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From the realm of ‘too far fetched’ to be believed comes word that members of the UX, a shadowy underground organisation, have been cleared of charges in their daring, but clandestine operation to restore an antique clock at the Patheon in Paris. According to UrbanResources, the UnterGunther is “Swiss-French urban explorers team whose activity is to restore the invisible parts of the heritage in total clandestinity.” This latest caper involved a year long process to secretly repair a huge clock in the Pantheon which had fallen into disrepair. Not only did they carry out this task undetected over the space of a year, they built a lounge within the dome of the Pantheon, wired into electrical circuits and even installed a networked computer, all under the unsuspecting nose of Pantheon staff. When the UnterGunther cell finished their restoration, they made the decision to reveal their work to ensure the clock received ongoing care. The Guardian has a story in English on their acquittal.
The group were charged with tampering with a lock (their sometime means of ingress and egress) and the head of security for the Pantheon took retirement. Despite the fact that the group has demonstrated the clock to have been fully restored, the staff at the Pantheon have, for undisclosed reasons, chosen not to wind or cause the clock to operate. Apparently the group is already at work on their next operation. Encroyable!

My apologies if this sounded like I was challenging Jared Diamond to a wordoff ;-)   Michele just pointed me to wonderfully candid article

explaining why office workers should appreciate their surroundings and pity the poor fools that consider the coffee shop their workplace. While I number amongst those blighted souls and blogged last year on why I like the mobile life, Sathnam Sanghera’s ode to office bliss, raises some notable and worthy points.
I was particularly struck by Sanghera’s anecdotal reference to people working at home starting to form groups so they can work at home together. Man is indeed a social animal. I like working in a public space, even if I am not interacting directly with other people. I like having them around. By that I don’t mean to objectify others by any means, as having people in your immediate proximity can often run counter to productivity. But, everyone has their own levels of tolerance, and I sense that Sanghera is accepting this broad stratum of individual workspace demands. He highlights a study by Benjamin Markham¹ that underlines the fact that workplaces end up being counterproductive by being too quiet. The silence itself becomes a distraction.
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1. Sorry, but I can’t find the source for his reference [↩]

When is a tool, not a tool? Apparently when it is a quasi-tool or a proto-tool. A tool provides functionless functionality.
These were a couple of the epigramatics Barry Allen shared during a talk on technology, culture and civilization.¹
I could not possibly do justice to philosophical reflections on the nature of a tool, so I stop there on the philosophical and refer you to my footnote, but as an economist I was particularly drawn into his discussion of the progression from first to second order machines. First order being ‘devices that extend human capacities by exploiting a mechanical advantage’ and second-order featuring ‘an assembly of first-order machines, coupled to produce a multiplying effect.’ This form of organization seemed to dovetail with a similar discussion that Allen raised about our ability to effectively fix prices, but our seeming imability to determine the true cost of a tool.
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1. Quasi-tools as I understand are objects used by beings without conscious or intelligent awareness that the object provides any particular function. Innate use of a pebble by a wasp to block the entrance to a birth chamber for example. In contrast, a proto-tool, is consciously chosen for use, but has not be fashioned to perform that function, lacking deliberate design to enable that function. A ‘tool’ per se shares two descriptive aspects: that its function is manifold and not limited by purpose, instead extended by technique to form cultural technology. Secondly, the tool is an artifact that lacks definition without having a place within an economy - that is, it has been previously linked to others in an economy of socially complimentary action (design, manufacture, sale, license, etc.) when we engage with it. [↩]

Last week Stéfan Sinclair noted that his upgrade to Leopard had largely been a less than awe-inspiring experience. he did find some amusement with the new Mosaic screensaver and I will admit that after trying it on his instigation, it’s pretty cool. I have to add another rather impressive addition to the list. DataDetectors! Wow. I can remember being one among many that saw the power of this sort of recognition of disjointed info on the Newton and having it take a scribble about lunch with Joe and make some assumptions and create an event in your calendar linked to the first Joe it found in your address book. So, Apple’s been playing with the technology for awhile. DataDetectors are so subtle that I suspect many people might be missing them. I did.
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The consistently thought-provoking Chris Brogan explores how current digital tools provide for greater freedom in employment and life in general. Chris makes some prescient referrals to technologies and ponders why one should focus on being more mobile or consider being more nomadic. His post explores the equation from the perspective of the nomad. I wonder what the perspective is from the other side - from those that would consider the nomad’s services. He raises the critical question about data security and I wonder if this doesn’t extend to a larger question of trust. I have only rarely been on the nomad employing side of the equation, but even by appreciating the nomadic perspective, I am challenged to feel comfortable with the nomad. It’s not really about the results - or about my level of trust. I agree with Chris and with Mark Harrison who affirmed that the nomad should be paid for delivering results. What concerns me is the breadth of digital relationships.
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I hadn’t been to the Digg Labs area in a while. Wow. They have a wonderful assortment of story and author visualization tools available there that are both mesmerizing and thought provoking. Navel gazing is a wonderful past-time and methinks that Digg is making a concerted effort at perfecting the art. I am particularly attracted to the new Arc tool. Its shows story popularity in realtime and also makes a link between stories dugg by the same users. Thicker vectors indicate story popularity. Interesting.
The Stac visualization is also extremely cool. A collection of stories represented by bars of varyiong shades based on popularity spread across the bottom of the screen and then as they are dugg, weight blocks fall from above reinforcing the story title. Just neat. And as before far to mesmerizing.
Its a quick way to gauge popularity and user activity. The animation is smooth and entertaining. Popular of course has nothing to do with my interest or relevance, but the visualization is effective in conveying the info and it does make a fine screensaver. Apple’s new RSS visualizer in Leopard is another cool infofeed screensaver. Visually stunning.